Alexander Gardner (photographer)

Alexander Gardner (October 17, 1821 – December 10, 1882) was a Scottish photographer who moved to the United States in 1856 where he developed his profession. He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War, American President Abraham Lincoln, and the execution of the conspirators to Lincoln's assassination. This article is about the country. ... A photographer at the Calgary Folk Music Festival Paparazzi at the Tribeca Film Festival A photographer is a person who takes a photograph using a camera. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      For other uses, see President of the United States (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... The assassination of Abraham Lincoln. ...

Biography

Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1821. He became an apprentice silversmith jeweler at the age of fourteen. Gardner had a Calvinist upbringing and was influenced by the work of Robert Owen, Welsh socialist and father of the cooperative movement. By adulthood he desired to create a cooperative in the United States that would incorporate socialist values. In 1850, Gardner and others purchased land near Monona, Iowa, for this purpose, but Gardner never lived there, choosing to return to Scotland to raise more money. He stayed there until 1856, becoming owner and editor of the Glasgow Sentinel in 1851. Visiting The Great Exhibition in 1851 in Hyde Park, London, he saw the photography of American Mathew Brady, and thus began his interest in the subject. For the motif, see Paisley (design). ... This article is about the country. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Relation to other religions Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Calvinism... For other uses, see Robert Owen (disambiguation). ... Co-op redirects here. ... Monona is a city located in Clayton County, Iowa. ... The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park 1851. ... “Hyde Park” redirects here. ... Mathew B. Brady, circa 1875 Mathew B. Brady (ca. ...

Gardner and his family moved to the United States in 1856. Finding that many friends and family members at the cooperative he had helped to form were dead or dying of tuberculosis, he stayed in New York. He initiated contact with Brady and came to work for him, eventually managing Brady's Washington, D.C., gallery. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or Tuberculosis) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ... For other uses, see Washington, D.C. (disambiguation). ...

Abraham Lincoln became the American President in the November 1860 election and along with his election came the threat of war. Gardner, being in Washington, was well-positioned for these events, and his popularity rose as a portrait photographer, capturing the visages of soldiers leaving for war. The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. ...

Brady had had the idea to photograph the Civil War. Gardner's relationship with Allan Pinkerton (who was head of an intelligence operation that would become the Secret Service) was the key to communicating Brady's ideas to Lincoln. Pinkerton recommended Gardner for the position of chief photographer under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Topographical Engineers. Following that short appointment, Gardner became a staff photographer under General George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac. At this point, Gardner's management of Brady's gallery ended. The honorary rank of captain was bestowed upon Gardner, and he photographed the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, developing photos in his traveling darkroom. Portrait of Allan Pinkerton from Harpers Weekly, 1884 Allan Pinkerton (August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884) was a U.S. detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton Agency, the first detective agency of the United States. ... USSS redirects here. ... For the 1960s commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, see George McClellan (police commissioner). ... Generals Burnside, Hancock, Couch, Ferro, Patrick, Wilcox, Cochrane, Buford and others. ... For the ship, see USS Antietam (CV-36). ...

Gardner worked for Brady from 1856 to 1862. According to a New York Times review, Gardner has often had his work misattributed to Brady, and despite his considerable output, historians have tended to give Gardner less than full recognition for his documentation of the Civil War.^[1] Lincoln dismissed McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac in November 1862, and Gardner’s role as chief army photographer diminished. About this time, Gardner ended his working relationship with Brady, probably in part because of Brady's practice of attributing his employees' work as "Photographed by Brady".^[1] That winter, Gardner followed General Ambrose Burnside, photographing the Battle of Fredericksburg. Next, he followed General Joseph Hooker. In May 1863, Gardner and his brother James opened their own studio in Washington, D.C, hiring many of Brady's former staff. Gardner photographed the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863) and the Siege of Petersburg (June 1864–April 1865) during this time. The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American soldier, railroad executive, inventor, industrialist, and politician from Rhode Island, serving as governor and a U.S. Senator. ... Belligerents United States (Union) CSA (Confederacy) Commanders Ambrose E. Burnside Robert E. Lee Strength Army of the Potomac ~114,000 engaged Army of Northern Virginia ~72,500 engaged Casualties and losses 12,653 (1,284 killed, 9,600 wounded, 1,769 captured/missing) 5,377 (608 killed, 4,116 wounded... For the English botanist, see Joseph Dalton Hooker. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America Commanders George G. Meade Robert E. Lee Strength 93,921[1] 71,699[2] Casualties 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured/missing)[1] 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured/missing... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America Commanders Ulysses S. Grant Robert E. Lee Strength 67,000 – 125,000 average of 52,000 Casualties 53,386 ~32,000 The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 15, 1864, to March...

In 1866, Gardner published a two-volume work, Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War. Each volume contained 50 hand-mounted original prints. Not all photographs were Gardner's; he credited the negative producer and the positive print printer. As the employer, Gardner owned the work produced, as with any modern-day studio. The sketchbook contained work by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, James F. Gibson, John Reekie, William Pywell, James Gardner (his brother), John Wood, George N. Barnard, David Knox and David Woodbury, among others. Among his photographs of Abraham Lincoln were the last to be taken of the President, four days before his assassination. He also documented Lincoln's funeral, and photographed the conspirators involved (with John Wilkes Booth) in Lincoln's assassination. Gardner was the only photographer allowed at their execution by hanging, photographs of which would later be translated into woodcuts for publication in Harper's Weekly. Timothy H. OSullivan (c. ... William Pywell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia var skin=vector, stylepath=http://bits. ... The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the third war in history to be caught on camera. ... Assassination of Abraham Lincoln From left to right: Major Henry Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, and John Wilkes Booth. ... John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Fords Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. ... Four horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Dürer Ukiyo-e woodcut, Ishiyama Moon by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1889) Woodcut is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface... Teresa Bagioli Sickles confession, 1859 Harpers Weekly (A Journal of Civilization) was an American political magazine based in New York City. ...

Post-War

After the war, Gardner was commissioned to photograph Native Americans who came to Washington to discuss treaties; and he surveyed the proposed route of the Kansas Pacific railroad to the Pacific Ocean. Many of his photos were stereoscopic. After 1871, Gardner gave up photography and helped to found an insurance company. Gardner stayed in Washington until his death. When asked about his work, he said, "It is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest."^[2] Indigenous peoples in the United States are distinct groups of peoples who are indigenous to what is now states or territories of the United States of America. ... The Kansas Pacific main line shown on an 1869 map. ... Stereoscopy, stereoscopic imaging or 3-D (three-dimensional) imaging is a technique to create the illusion of depth in a photograph, movie, or other two-dimensional image, by presenting a slightly different image to each eye. ...

Controversy

A century later, photographic analysis suggested that Gardner had manipulated the setting of at least one of his Civil War photos by moving a soldier's corpse and weapon into more dramatic positions.^[3][4] In 1961, Frederic Ray of the Civil War Times magazine compared several of Gardner's Gettysburg photos showing "two" dead Confederate snipers and realized that the same body has been photographed in two separate locations. One of his most famous images, Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, has been argued to be a fabrication. This argument, first put forth by William Frassanito in 1975, goes this way - Gardner and his assistants Timothy O'Sullivan and James Gibson had dragged the sniper's body 40 yards into the more photogenic surroundings of the Devil's Den to create a better composition. Though Ray's analysis was that the same body was used in two photographs, Frassanito expanded on this analysis in his 1975 book "Gettysburg: A Journey in Time", and acknowledged that the manipulation of photographic settings in the early years of photography was not frowned upon. In 1998 artist James C. Groves produced another analysis which has brought the debate of the "Case of the Moved Body" full circle. Mr. Groves' analysis of the photographic evidence contained in the two photographs and another stereo image contradicts Frassanito's analysis. Civil War Times - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia var skin=vector, stylepath=http://bits. ... Devils Den is the nickname for a terrain feature south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that was the site of fierce fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. ...

Gallery

Gardner Sketchbook title	Confederate dead at Antietam 1862	Middle bridge over Antietam Creek, September 1862. Burnside Bridge traversing Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, site of heavy combat during the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) on September 17, 1862 Antietam Creek is a tributary of the Potomac River located in south central Pennsylvania and western Maryland in the United States. ...	Abraham Lincoln, Allan Pinkerton and John Alexander McClernand, visiting the Antietam battlefield, 1862. For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... Portrait of Allan Pinkerton from Harpers Weekly, 1884 Allan Pinkerton (August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884) was a U.S. detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton Agency, the first detective agency of the United States. ... John Alexander McClernand John Alexander McClernand (May 30, 1812 – September 20, 1900) was an American soldier and lawyer. ... For the ship, see USS Antietam (CV-36). ...
The "Gettysburg Portrait", A head-on photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken on November 8, 1863; two weeks before his Gettysburg Address. The only confirmed photo of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg (seated), taken about noon, just after Lincoln arrived and some three hours before he spoke. ...	Cracked glass portrait of Abraham Lincoln, widely considered to be the last photograph taken of the president before his death. It has been established that the photo was taken at Gardner's studio on April 10, 1865.	Execution of Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt-the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators; July 7, 1865 Mary Surratt Mary Elizabeth Eugenia Jenkins Surratt (May/June 1823 in Waterloo, Maryland, USA – July 7, 1865 in Washington, D.C), was a member of the Abraham Lincoln assassination conspiracy and the first woman executed by the United States federal government, for her role in the conspiracy. ... Lewis Thornton Powell (April 22, 1844 – July 7, 1865), also known as Lewis Paine or Payne, attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, and was one of four people hanged for the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. ... David Herold, Washington Navy Yard, 1865 Execution of the four persons condemned as conspirators (Mary E. Surratt, Lewis T. Powell, David E. Herold, and George A. Atzerodt), July 7, 1865, at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. David Edgar Herold (16 June 1842 – 7 July 1865) conspired with John Wilkes... George Atzerodt George Andreas Atzerodt (June 12, 1835 – July 7, 1865)[1][2] was a U.S. conspirator with John Wilkes Booth. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...	Lewis Powell, conspirator to assassination, after arrest, 1865. Lewis Thornton Powell (April 22, 1844 – July 7, 1865), also known as Lewis Paine or Payne, attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, and was one of four people hanged for the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. ...
David Herold, conspirator to assassination, after arrest, 1865. David Herold, Washington Navy Yard, 1865 Execution of the four persons condemned as conspirators (Mary E. Surratt, Lewis T. Powell, David E. Herold, and George A. Atzerodt), July 7, 1865, at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. David Edgar Herold (16 June 1842 – 7 July 1865) conspired with John Wilkes...

See also

• Photography and photographers of the American Civil War

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b} Hagen, Charles (July 31, 1992). "A Civil War Image Maker's Belated Recognition". The New York Times: p. C19. 
2. ^ Lee, Anthony W. On Alexander Gardner's photographic sketch book of the Civil War, Berkeley : University of California Press, 2007. p. 63. ISBN 9780520251519
3. ^ William A. Frassanito's books: Gettysburg-A Journey in Time page 187+; Early Photography at Gettysburg page 270+
4. ^ "A Sharpshooter’s Last Sleep". Museum of Hoaxes. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/photo_database/image/a_sharpshooters_last_sleep/. Retrieved 2008-10-25. 

Bibliography

• Indiana Historical Society. "Alexander Gardner: Biographical Sketch". William Henry Smith Memorial Library. http://www.indianahistory.org/library/manuscripts/collection_guides/P0420.html. Retrieved 2006-08-04. 
• Gardner, Alexander (1865-1866, Reprinted 1959). Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War. New York: Dover Publications.  online version images
• Katz, Mark D. (1990). Witness to an Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner. New York: Viking Studio Books. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexander Gardner

• A Eulogy on the Life and Character of Alexander Gardner at the Library of Congress
• "Alexander Gardner". George Eastman House Collection. http://www.geh.org/fm/st04/htmlsrc/gardner_idx00001.html#81:7171:0001. Retrieved 2010-02-20. 
• "Alexander Gardner". Spartacus Educational. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAPgardner.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-25. 
• Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach includes a passage on Gardner
• Museum-quality prints of Alexander Gardner photographs by Argent Editions

Persondata
Name	Gardner, Alexander
Alternative names
Short description	American photographer
Date of birth	October 17, 1821
Place of birth	Paisley, Scotland
Date of death	December 10, 1882
Place of death